Much of the potential joy of a Mediterranean vacation is undermined if you don’t speak the local language. It’s difficult to eat at the interesting, non-tourist-trap restaurants; you often end up shopping at overpriced tourist stores; and your only conversations are with people whose job it is to be multi-lingual—cabdrivers, hotel staff, waiters, and so forth.
But what if there were an island where you could have lunch at every authentic café without pointing and gesticulating like a stupid tourist, shop at the same stores as the locals, then carouse into the small hours every night in delightful sidewalk restaurants?